No toll hike yet for trucks on Thruway

Delay in 45 percent increase gives industry, lawmakers hope an alternative is in the works

Updated 11:08 am, Tuesday, October 2, 2012

ALBANY — The sun rose and set Monday without a proposed 45 percent toll increase for trucks on the Thruway taking effect.

That's not to say there won't be a hike, but the delay has given some people hope that a more modest increase may be in the offing.

In the interim, business groups continued to blast the state Thruway Authority for what they say are its profligate ways and seeming indifference to how such an increase would harm upstate New York.

"It should not be up to the toll-payers and taxpayers to bail them out from years of mismanagement," Brian Sampson, executive director of Unshackle Upstate, said at a Monday news conference held in front of a closed and boarded-up motel directly across the street from Thruway Authority headquarters.

Senate candidate George Amedore, center stands across the street from the NYS Thruway Headquarters in Albany, N.Y. as he speaks about the NYS Thruway toll hikes while surrounded by business leaders Oct 1, 2012. Joining Amedore are from left; Brian Sampson, executive director of Unshackle Upstate and Ken Pokalsky, vice president of government affairs for the Business Council of NYS. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union) less

Senate candidate George Amedore, center stands across the street from the NYS Thruway Headquarters in Albany, N.Y. as he speaks about the NYS Thruway toll hikes while surrounded by business leaders Oct 1, 2012. ... more

Photo: Skip Dickstein

No toll hike yet for trucks on Thruway

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Sampson and members of the state Business Council came to Monday's event to lend their endorsement to Republican Assemblyman George Amedore, who is running in the newly created 46th state Senate District.

Amedore, a longtime critic of the Thruway Authority, has made his opposition to the toll increase a cornerstone of his campaign for the Senate, with radio and TV ads characterizing the increase as a de facto tax.

"This 45 percent increase just doesn't make sense," Amedore said.

During a September hearing sponsored by Assembly Republicans, a succession of speakers said the toll hike would drive up the cost of goods and services for people upstate.

At the time, the Thruway Authority signaled that tolls could rise as soon as the start of October. Their website also referenced the increase as coming this month.

But a meeting of the authority's appointed board of directors set for Sept. 11 was canceled — and hasn't yet been rescheduled.

Thruway officials on Monday didn't return a call about the proposed hikes.

"We were told there were scheduling conflicts," Kendra Adams, president of the state Motor Truck Association, said of September's abortive meeting. "There was not a lot of detail given."

"We're hopeful that the delay is an indication that there are ongoing conversations about the overall impact of the toll, and hopefully they are looking at alternatives," Adams said.

Truckers, she explained, have increasingly sophisticated "route optimization software" that can map out the most cost-effective way to get from point A to point B.

For shipments that aren't time-sensitive, avoiding tolls is a big factor.

"They may choose to take a little bit more time than to pay the tolls," she said.

While not weighing in on specifics, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has previously said that some sort of increase is likely needed to maintain the Thruway Authority's credit rating.

"It's easy to say there should be no toll increase," Cuomo said in September. "It's harder to say we need to keep the finances of the Thruway Authority stable."

Adams said most of her membership consist of relatively small firms with 20 or fewer trucks — major nationwide carriers, while they operate in New York, aren't based in the Empire State due to the cost.